The Upper Mississippi River Land Trust Excellence Program

The Land Trust Alliance is pleased to announce a new, comprehensive two-year program to strengthen the capacity, expertise and conservation impact of land trusts operating within a 7 state region of the Upper Mississippi River Basin.  Our primary goal is to build land trust capacity to help improve water quality through land conservation and restoration, thereby enhancing the resilience of the Mississippi River and its headwaters.

The Upper Mississippi River Land Trust Excellence Program will provide training and consultation services to land trusts within the following states:  Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska and Wisconsin.  Funding for this program is made possible through generous support from the McKnight Foundation, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

This new program will increase direct services to land trusts such as guided organizational assessments, coaching, and small grants to help land trusts implement organizational improvements and prepare for accreditation.  In addition, we will offer online and in-person trainings on farm bill reauthorization and policy advocacy, federal conservation funding programs, drafting agricultural easements, and potentially other topics as suggested by the land trust community.

For a full program description, please click on the link below:

Upper Mississippi River Land Trust Excellence - Program Description (PDF)

For more information, please contact:

Erin Heskett
National Services Director
Land Trust Alliance
E-mail | (269) 324-1683

Photo by: Bob Nichols, USDA NRCS